Financial intelligence is the foundation and the starting point on the journey of wealth creation. Like I have shared earlier in this column, no one can create wealth without financial intelligence and the reason why a lot of people are poor or corrupt is because they are financial illiterates. How then can I come up with a list of people who don’t need financial intelligence?
I have realised that even though a lot of people want to be rich and wealthy, many of them do not still place a premium on the acquisition of financial intelligence. I wrote this piece to joggle their minds.
Financial intelligence is not taught in our schools and that is why academic education cannot guarantee wealth creation and the only way to become financially intelligent is through personal development and capacity building. I want to use this column to help readers check themselves and decide where they stand. Are their people who don’t need financial intelligence? Let’s find out.
- If you have inherited huge sums of money and assets; and you have people that will manage them for you.
It does not take any level of intelligence to inherit things. It just takes being born into wealth to inherit it. So, if this is your situation and you are okay with it that way, then you can choose to shun knowledge, intelligence, growth etc and stay shallow. Will you be fulfilled being like that? That is a question only you can answer if you fall into this category. It is my belief that as parents while it is good to leave an inheritance for our children and give them a better life, our focus should be on what we leave IN them and not what we leave FOR them. The values and virtues people inherit are greater in value than the properties or wealth. Even if you fall into this category, I will advise you to still pursue financial intelligence lest your inheritance managers sell you and collect receipt. A word is enough for the wise.
- If you marry for money or into money
It is no longer news that some people will do anything to marry people for their money or based on the wealth of their family just to “escape poverty”. Or, so they think. There are a lot of rich men who have married because of beauty and not brains, hence like all their other acquisitions, they acquire a beautiful wife; give her all she needs and keep her like a trophy because they know she came for money and they don’t also expect anything intelligent from her than to be a house wife and baby factory.
If your life’s goal is to use any means to marry into wealth and enjoy it without adding value, then it’s your life; but, I will strongly advise you to give financial intelligence a priority in your life.
- If you are born a genius and extra talented to make money from a tender age and have others manage it for you.
The percentage of those who fall into this category is very minute and I doubt that any reasonable person will settle for this as a possibility to live for. Child stars and athletes have been casualties of improper financial managers for decades and you need to realise that no one will plan your future for you if you don’t plan it yourself or be involved.
How many people do you know who fall into this category and grew up to still have wealth all through their lifetime? Do your research. Get the statistics and make up your mind.
- If you plan to work for the government, be a civil servant and live on your pension all your life
Though strange, the truth is that not everybody wants to prosper or be wealthy because as far as they are concerned, ‘fingers are not equal”. Think about this:
- Your grandfather worked in the Nigerian Railway
- Your father worked in the Nigerian Airways
- You are now working in NIPOST
You seem to come from a generation of civil servants and don’t realise it is time to break the cycle and financial intelligence is your way out. If you are okay with this level, then you stay there because you can’t conquer what you don’t confront and you can’t confront what you don’t identify. I hope you identify your satisfaction with the status quo as a limitation on your possibility.
- If you don’t care whether you are rich or not
Like I said earlier, not everybody wants to be rich and wealthy and you can’t force them. In a television interview, I was once asked a simple yet complex question: Can’t every Nigerian become a millionaire? My answer was simple yet complex too depending on your view: Every Nigerian can become a millionaire but not every Nigerian will become a millionaire because not everyone will do what they need to do to create wealth.
If you are okay with poverty and lack, too bad, but you can have a better life. Even if you don’t want the money for yourself, get it so you can give it out for the good of humanity. I hope you have been inspired through this column. See you at the top.